I'm usually pretty good with these types of situations also. I just email their staff and open up a line of communication where I'm pretty nice, etc. It almost always works. In the few cases where it doesn't work...I do other things.

I do fly a lot (although not as much as many others) so I do run into incidents sort of like this every year or two.

On another note, I received confirmation today from AS that I (lowly MVP) was upgraded to first class on my flight this Saturday. I've taken that flight a few times and have never been upgraded so it's nice to actually be upgraded (I think this is the first time in my 2 years of being MVP) and be upgraded before the day of the flight is a nice bonus.